


Enemy lines are drawn

by UpInOrbit



Series: Time is frozen [2]
Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Angst, Fringe inspiration, Gen, Multiple Universes, OT12 - Freeform, Sequel, inspired by the music videos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-07-18 15:37:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16121534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UpInOrbit/pseuds/UpInOrbit
Summary: She sometimes woke up in the dead of the night, a scream stuck in her throat, drenched in cold sweat, as she dreamt of days when she would have no one by her side.Or: The beginning of the end, and how one became twelve.(Sequel/prequel/spinoff toLiving in different nations





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here's the sequel/prequel/spinoff to [Living in different nations](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15659721/chapters/36374541)! If you haven't read the first one, I'd highly recommend reading it. It's not essential, and this can be read on it's own but as it is a prequel/sequel it's going to spoil the first one. But it you don't have any problems with that, then I hope you enjoy it ^^  
> The title comes from 5SOS' More, as every title regarding this series because it was accurate xD  
> This being said, I hope you enjoy it!

It all started, like many other things, with a small and harmless idea. In the back of their minds, it grew and grew until it could not be ignored, maxing them fixated on it, their fingers itching to make it come true. It filled every corner of their minds, making it the only thing they could focus on, imposible to ignore.

“We’re going to open a portal to another universe!!”

That’s how it started.

The enthusiastic statement was met with blank looks, and faces that showed various degrees of disinterest. It wasn’t that they weren’t interested, per se, rather that they were used to those kind of grand announcements of projects that would be dropped in the span of a week.It wasn’t the first time Jungeun had gotten up in the middle of the dinner to make such announcements, after all. It was normal for Jungeun, Jinsoul and Yerim to do that kind of things, or rather, Jungeun did, the other two silently nodding from were they were seated. 

And it wasn’t like they didn’t succeed. In fact, Olivia still wore the watch that allowed her to go back in time from that hellish week during which the magic trio had decided to try and rewind time. The three of them were intelligent enough to make those crazy ideas work, or Jungeun’s ideas, to be precise, as she was the one who always proposed them. Jinsoul followed her because all Jungeun had to do was breath and she’d get heart-eyes from her girlfriend, and Yerim tagged along because she loved a good challenge. So it wasn’t a matter of them not being able to do it, but of not being able to commit, which was why Olivia’s watch only allowed her to rewind the last ten minutes. Jungeun got easily distracted, and her brain was so full of ideas that she quickly had to switch from one to another, and the others followed her. 

For that exact reason, the enthusiasm her words caused had been diminishing as time went by, all of them knowing that, even if they managed to accomplish it (which they would), it would not be to the degree the rest of the girls expected. So they all continued to eat, and having their own conversations, paying little mind to Jungeun. Not one to be easily deterred, though, Jungeun continued to talk.

“We’ve been testing some theories for the last couple of weeks, and we think we can make it”.

That piqued up Olivia’s interest. It was unusual for Jungeun to do the same thing for extensive periods of time. Jinsoul was tenacious, never giving up, and Yerim didn’t like to leave things unfinished, not when there was something she could still crack, but Jungeun was different, and as soon as she met her most immediate goals, she tended to turn her interest somewhere else, dragging the other two along. So for her to pursue the same thing for over a week, without even having definite results yet? That was unheard of. And it somewhat scared Olivia, fearing where that curiosity would lead them.

Seeing that she still hadn’t attracted everyone’s attention, Jungeun insisted.

“If we succeed, we might be able to get out of here!”.

There it was. Eight heads turned instantly to Jungeun, who smiled triumphantly. The hall went silent, all eyes zeroing in on her, and Olivia felt her gut tighten with something that was almost fear. 

“We didn’t want to say anything until it was a sure thing”, according to Yerim and Jinsoul’s expressions, it wasn’t, but Jungeun was most likely too excited to stay silent, “but we all want to see if we can get out of here and go to other places, so I thought it was only fair for you to know”. There they were, the words Olivia had been dreading to hear. “We think there might other universes and we might have found the way to get to them, but we have to make sure it is completely safe before we do anything else”.

At that point, the rest of the girls started to talk all at once, asking questions, trying to get the other three to answer. Not Olivia, though. She was more worried about other things, like the possibility of getting out of their castle, their home. The twelve of them lived there, and it was good. The others found it boring, but she found it safe. They wanted to spread their wings and fly, but Olivia had always preferred to have the ground beneath her feet, least she fell from the skies and died. There was something inherently different in her, and while not all of them _needed_ to leave, Olivia was the only one who knew for sure she _wanted_ to stay. It was their home, after all.

A home that seemed to have grown too small for most of them, it seemed. Haseul asked questions due to her concern about their safety, her protective instincts kicking in, but Yves and Hyunjin had a gleam in their eyes, almost voracious, and Olivia knew they would be among the first to leave. She wanted to understand it, almost desperately. She tried to relate when the others complained that their Eden was too small, the forest endless and suffocating, the lack of other people discouraging, but it was something she just couldn’t do. So she smiled and nodded, pretending to understand, even if it broke her heart. She wouldn’t trade her days in the castle for anything, the evenings they spent chasing each other in the woods bringing her the most joy. They weren’t in need of anything, and all they could possibly wish for was there with them. It was true that not being able to leave was sometimes a bit frustrating, but they had each other. Shouldn’t that be enough? 

When she looked up and saw the way their faces lit up, the smiles that spread so wide and the excitement that coursed through their veins, she knew it wouldn’t be. 

 

***

 

The days went by slowly, so slowly, the hours seemed to last forever. The whole castle appeared to be holding it’s breath. It was kind of hard to see, the way they all seemed to lose a little light with every passing day, how they lost that special spark, as the weeks came and went, with no news of the “portal”, as the trio had been calling it. None had dared approach them to ask about the matter, fearing it would make their worse dreams true, fearing their hopes would vanish with just one look. So they all waited, but while most of them hoped for the best, Olivia secretly hoped for the worse.

It wasn’t something she was proud of, and she’d never admit it aloud, not even to herself, but she couldn’t stomach the idea of losing her friends, her sisters. She sometimes woke up in the dead of the night, a scream stuck in her throat, drenched in cold sweat, as she dreamt of days when she would have no one by her side. So as days went by with no news, she allowed herself to breath properly for the first time in weeks, and thought that maybe, maybe, she would never have to face her biggest nightmare.

That was until, one day, Jungeun came in with the biggest smile on her face, Yerim and Jinsoul on tow, but both smiling as brightly as Jungeun. And Olivia knew they had done something. Her heart sunk as they cleared their throats, attracting everyone’s attention, and they opened the bag they were carrying, taking something out of it: it was some kind of book, large, but with few pages, made of flimsy paper, and full of pictures, of places they had never seen, people they had never met, that could only mean one thing.

“You made it!” Yeojin screamed at the top of her lungs, threatening to deafen all of them, but they were too excited to care.

As if on cue, they all hurried towards Jungeun, Yerim and Jinsoul, fighting to see who got the book. It got so bad Yves had to step in to put some order, while Haseul hurried to the trio, to make sure they were all safe and sound. Olivia watched it all form where she was rooted to the ground, before forcing herself to move and pretend she was interested, as excited as the others.

“How did you do it?”

Heejin’s question made them all look at Jungeun, waiting for an explanation. Yerim stepped forward. 

“We know we haven’t said anything about this since we first told you about it, but we’ve been working on it nonstop and yesterday we finally opened a portal that was big enough to fit us!”

“We went through it this morning, and have been exploring all day” as soon as Jinsoul spoke, Olivia remembered she hadn’t seen any of the three girls that day. The others seemed to be having the same revelation. 

“How did you know were to go?” Chuu asked. The three of them exchanged a look.

“We basically run some tests, and when we confirmed there were more universes other than ours, we tried to isolate one point as a reference, and then map out the rest of the world. It’s more complex than that but I don’t really know how to explain it without getting technical” Yerim smiled, rubbing her neck.

“Don’t worry, I don’t think I really need to know that” she laughed it off.

“The important thing is that we can finally get out of here!”

The cheers were loud and deafening, even if only Olivia seemed to be bothered by it. Beside her, Yeojin threw her arms in the air, and Go Won, Chuu and Yves hugged each other, jumping excitedly. Heejin and Hyunjin talked to each other as they laughed and even Vivi, who had stepped away as they struggled to get closer to see the photos, looked incredibly hopeful. The only one who seemed to have some apprehension was Haseul, but Olivia could still see she was as happy as the other ones. Not wanting to dampen the enthusiasm, she remained silent.

“Are you sure this is safe?” 

Olivia’s eyes snapped back to Haseul, who semeed specially concerned. Neither Olivia nor Haseul missed the way the other three looked at each other, communicating without words. It was Jinsoul the one who answered.

“There are still things we have to perfect, some issues that need to be solved but…”

“It’s a simple question. Is it completely safe to use?” Haseul’s voice, normally soft and warm, was hard. Jinsoul sighed.

“There are still some glitches, so we can’t promise it is completely safe. Yet” she hurried to add, but Haseul was already shaking her head.

“We’re not using it until there are no risks”.

“But there will always be some risks! Everything was a risk attached to it!” Yerim complained. “And we used it and it was fine, we came back!”

“You shouldn’t have used it if it wasn’t safe! I can’t change the fact that you went through it but I’m not letting the others use it if there are no guarantees” Haseul crossed her arms in front of her chest, head high.

They had all fallen silent, knowing better than to cross Haseul. She might be the sweetest person ever, but that changed when any of her girls were in danger, and they all knew that. That’s why when Yerim opened her mouth to complain more, both Jinsoul and Jungeun hushed her up.

“She’s right, Yerim. If anything happened, it would be our fault. We won’t allow anyone to use it until it’s completely safe” Jungeun assured Haseul.

 

***

 

Jungeun stayed true to her word. No one was allowed not even remotely close to the room in which they carried out their experiments, but they also barely left said room. They went in early in the morning and came out after everyone had already had dinner. Truth be told, they were all a little worried about them, and they tried to get them to leave their experiments for a little while, but they all knew it was unlikely they’d do it before they had succeeded. 

So life went by, without news, until one day, there was an explosion. It was like never they had ever experienced, but they all knew what happened, when the walls shook, and paintings fell, a shock so big it threw the girls that were standing to the floor. As soon as they recovered from the aftermath, the all ran to the lab, Yves and Vivi leading the way, Go Won and Olivia lagging behind. 

As they approached the underground lab, Olivia noticed the air smelt weird, like something had burnt, and it was heavy with dust that had yet to settle. It didn’t look good. But by the time they arrived, they saw, or rather they heard about, the three of them sat against the walls, clothes disheveled and faces covered in dust and soot, coughing loudly but other than that, fine. Hyunjin ran back to get them some water.

When she had recovered enough to talk, Jinsoul explained what had happened.

“We saw there had been some weird things going on the last times we had opened the portal, and when we opened one today to see what was happening, everything shook, and then there was an explosion” a coughing fit took over, preventing her from talking.

Hyunjin came back with the water, and she handed some to the three girls, who accepted it with a nod and a weak smile.

“I think it was because we opened them carelessly. It was too rough. We didn’t prepare the ‘fabric’ of the universe and we ripped it, so it turned against us” Jungeun added.

“Does that mean we can’t leave? Or can you fix it?” she had elbowed her way to the front lines and Olivia prayed her voice didn’t betray what she truly wanted.

“Now that we know what can happen, we can be more careful. We can’t do something like this again or we risk destroying our universes, but I think… I think we can open one in maybe a week” she said, with a radiant smile.

Even if she felt how her heart sunk, Olivia smiled, hoping it looked happy and not as if she was about to cry. She knew the inevitable would come. A week later, the castle shook again, but that time it was with the girl’s loud cheers when Yerim proudly opened a door in the middle of the dining hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this week! This fic is going to be shorter than Living in different nations because I've started uni once again and I can't promise I'll be able to stick to my schedule but I'll promise I'll try my best. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I really hope you enjoyed this fic!!  
> And as an extra (?), here's the [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6QvPfNmbHpLPqEz0zhRQrO) I did for this series! (It's called Living in different nations because it was meant for that but as I added songs it was more appropriate for this fic, so here it is xD)
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)
> 
> Val


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Halfway through writing the fourth chapter, I realised this fic was way more angsty than I had suspected, hence the new angst tag. Being the author (and given the name of the fic) I should have known it beforehand but the fic got a life of it's own...  
> Today's update is a little early because I've got a very busy day in front of me and I preferred to be safe. Initially I thought of posting it when Living in different nations got 1000 hits but we're close enough. And speaking of LIDN, thank you so much!!!! I know 1000 hits (well, 992 xD) isn't *that* much, but it is to me, and I'm really thankful for all the support you've given it, so thank you so much!!  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter, which is, by the way, the longest one so far xD

At first, they didn’t use the portals that much. They were eager to get out of the castle, but at the same time, it was the only thing they had ever known, and it wasn’t easy to take the first step and change that. Olivia knew it was just a matter of time, though: she could see it in the way Yves’ eyes lingered on the door that led to the garden, where Haseul had demanded the portal to be opened, and in the way Hyunjin’s feet sometimes lead her that way before she corrected her course. 

But for the time being, only Jungeun, Yerim and Jinsoul, the Odd Eye Circle, as they were sometimes called, used it. That was until they came back to find Hyunjin fast asleep in the same spot she had been waiting for them for over two hours, to ask them to allow her to go out with them. And where Hyunjin went, Heejin went too. Haseul begged the trio to go with the other two, at least the first couple times, until they got used to the new surroundings, and they all promised to comply as they went through the portal, under the watchful eyes of the other seven girls. They all scattered once the portal had been closed behind them, except for Yves. Yves, who hadn’t left yet because Chuu was too scared and worried about her, but who was probably waiting for the right time to convince Chuu it would be safe enough for her. And maybe safe enough for both of them.

They only used the portal once or twice a week, but it was obvious it soon wouldn’t be enough. One day, they started bringing gifts. Little things, here and there: more of the flimsy books, that Olivia learnt were in fact magazines, real books, food, sweets… Sometime later, they brought what they called “phones”: small objects with tactile screens that could be used to call each other. When Yeojin asked why, Yerim simply replied:

“We need something to keep in touch when we’re not here”.

They soon learnt they couldn’t use them when they were in different universes, so they kept open a small portal at all times, while they came up with a better solution. It was two weeks after Hyunjin and Heejin’s first trip when they brought a computer, Vivi clearly restraining herself from asking where all that stuff had come from. It had all of them fussing around it at first, as they tried to make it work. None of them were too adept at it, so they all slowly moved on, except for Olivia. Jungeun noticed the way Olivia looked at the computer, with so much curiosity, and she offered to give it to her.

“No way. I can’t take it, it’s too much” she refused, stepping back as she shook her head.

“Nonsense. We’re not using it and you like it, so have it, please”.

Unsure, Olivia was about to decline once again, but Jungeun’s bright smile and honest eyes made it impossible for her, so she just nodded and smiled, shy. Jungeun jumped and squeaked a little, more happy than Olivia had expected her to be.

“If you want to, we can set it up in our lab or in the room next to it, and you can work there with us”.

When she once more agreed, Jungeun hugged her, before asking Jinsoul to help them set it all up. That’s how Olivia started to spend her evenings holed up in the lab, slowly learning how to use a computer, teaching herself how the web pages truly worked, and learning things that might have been illegal, had she been in another universe. She was content with it, using her newfound ability to sate her curiosity, while she heard the other three talk about their works, understanding maybe only half of it, and it was almost enough to make her forget about her fears. Almost.

It was a sunny day when things started to go south. It all started normally, Olivia going back to what the others had begun to call “her lab”, until lunch time. Vivi went straight to Haseul, and told her something that had her looking extremely worried. Olivia watched the exchange with interest. Whatever it was about, it must have been important: it was not unusual to see Haseul somber, but Vivi was laid-back, or at least more adept at hiding her feelings, so seeing the way her brows furrowed and her eyes had darkened was not a good sign. 

Pointing at her phone, she said something that made Haseul grab her own, lifting it to her ear, but, who was she trying to call? They all gathered to have lunch together, but it was still pretty early, so not everyone was there, and still, it was a common occurrence that they sometimes forgot about the time and came in when most of them had already eaten. However Haseul was trying to call didn’t pick up, if her expression was anything to go by. It was then when Go Won sat down beside her, so Olivia stopped paying attention to what was happening around her, focusing on what the dark-haired girl was saying.

“Girls, one quick question” when she was sure everyone in the room was focused on her, Haseul exchanged a look with Vivi, who was standing beside her. “Do any of you know where Hyunjin and Heejin are?”

They all looked between each other, eyebrows raised, faces scrunched in concentration, trying to remember the last time they had seen her. As more faces became blank with ignorance, Haseul painfully twisted her hands. Vivi snaked one of hers, intertwining their fingers, and that seemed to calm Haseul a bit, even if she started to nibble on her bottom lip, tugging nervously.

“None of you have seen them today?” Haseul asked, the concern almost palpable. A chorus of no was her answer.

“When was the last time you saw them? Or talked to them?” Vivi stepped in, when it was obvious Haseul was too lost in her own thoughts to talk.

“A couple days ago” said Yeojin, almost tentatively, looking around, searching for confirmation from the others.

“If today’s a Wednesday… I think it might have been on Monday, or maybe Sunday”, replied Yerim.

“What were they going to do?”

“They came with us through the portals, and then they went their way” Yerim said, squirming nervously on her chair, as Vivi twisted a lock of pink hair around her finger, thinking.

“We haven’t seen them either” she inhaled deeply. “We think they might be missing” there an audible gasp coming from everyone of the girls. Vivi carried on speaking. “Haseul and I tried calling them, but they won’t answer our calls” it looked like Vivi wanted to say something else, but thought better, keeping her mouth shut. No one other than Olivia really noticed, and that was only because she was used to picking up the smallest things, those subtle changes people barely notice unless they know what to look for. “Do you have any idea of what might have happened?” she asked, turning towards the three scientists.

There was a silent conversation between them, until Jinsoul stood up to answer.

“We might. But we have to go to the lab first”.

Without waiting for a response, she headed towards the lab, followed by the other four. Olivia hesitated for a second before hurrying behind them, ignoring the voices of Go Won and Chuu, asking her what she was doing. She caught up with the others halfway down the stairs, when they heard her steps and turned around.

“I think I can help” she said, cutting Haseul before she could say anything. Haseul didn’t look convinced, and Olivia thought she might still tell her to go back to the hall, but Jungeun butted in.

“She’s really good with the computer, she might really be able to help us”.

Haseul looked like she wanted to refuse, but the concern over the other two girls won, so she just sighed and signaled for Olivia to follow them. Once in the lab, she went straight to her computer, turning it on, and waiting for it to get ready.

“Is there anything else you haven’t told us?”

The question caught them all by surprise, making Vivi jerk as she turned to face her. Jungeun, Jinsoul and Yerim stopped what they were doing in favour of looking at the other two, who looked unwilling to share whatever it was that had happened.

“We should tell them, Haseul. It might be for the best”. Haseul raked her hands through her hair, pulling with a little too much force, her knuckles turning white, before nodding weakly. “It wasn’t completely true when we said they didn’t answer our calls” Vivi confessed, who seemed to have found her feet to be very interesting. “When I called Hyunjin the first time she answered the phone, but she acted like she didn’t know who I was. I thought she was joking at first, but she kept denying she knew who I was and she even hung up on me. I couldn’t get a hold of her after that”.

That explained why both of them were so worried, and it made the other four considerably more worried. Just then there was a beep coming from the computer, a sign that it was ready to start working, and Olivia looked at Jungeun, waiting for instructions.

“You said you could find them, right?” she nodded. “What are you going to do?”

“If I can get in their phones, I think I can turn the GPS location on, and see where they are” ignoring the confused stares on Vivi’s and Haseul’s faces, she waited for Jungeun’s confirmation.

“Do you think you could get us their coordinates, so that we can open a portal there and bring them home?” 

“If their phones are on, I think I could, yes”.

“You do that, then. Yerim, Jinsoul and I will get everything ready. And if you can’t, we’ll have to think of something else” she muttered, as she leant over to turn on their machine. 

Olivia started to work, her fingers flying over the keyboard, eyes scanning the screen, paying no mind to Haseul and Vivi, who were watching her closely as she worked.

“Have you done this before?” there was an ounce of suspicion in her voice. Her fingers stilled on the keyboard for a seconds, before she resumed her work.

“No” she answered, hoping it sounded believable. It was true, in a sense. She hadn’t done that to any of the others, which was obviously Haseul’s concern, but she had done it with her phone, and she was pretty confident with her growing skills. It only took her a couple minutes to locate Heejin and Hyunjin’s phones.

“Got them. They are together right now. I’ll send you the coordinates”.

Yerim nodded, and without a word, the trio opened a portal.

“What are you going to do?”

Jinsoul glanced at Haseul.

“We’re going after them”.

The three of them marched towards the portal, disappearing through it. The three that remained at the lab waited anxiously: Haseul went from one of the room to the other, bitting on her bottom lip, almost to the point of bleeding; Vivi was staring at the portal, without so much as blinking, winding her hair around her finger; Olivia, too, was staring at the portal, her leg bouncing nervously. 

The minutes felt like hours, but when the girls finally emerged, they couldn’t have been out more than fifteen minutes. Yerim lead the march, followed by Hyunjin and Heejin, who were being pushed forward by Jungeun and Jinsoul. As soon as they came out of the portal, Yerim made a beeline for their computer, closing the portal behind them, before the missing girls could escape through it, like they clearly wanted to do.

“What happened? Are they okay?” Haseul strode up to them, watching them worriedly. Jinsoul groaned in response.

“They’re fine, unlike me” she grumbled, carefully touching her cheek, which was crossed by three parallel lines, like a cat had scratched her. “Although they don’t seem to remember anything other than their names”.

The six of them turned their heads to Hyunjin and Heejin, who looked scared and confused. Their hands were linked, and they sticked together, eyeing suspiciously their surroundings, refusing to get any closer to the other girls, with Hyunjin standing in front, her body covering her friend’s. Heejin clutched Hyunjin’s yellow sweater like her life depended on it, and her lips trembled slightly. She might be as physically imposing as a rabbit, but her gaze, albeit scared, was determined, and none of them doubted she’d react if they did something she didn’t like..

“We found them in a house. It looked like they had been living there forever” Yerim added from where she was, behind the computer.

“Heejin, what happened?” Haseul attempted to get closer to them, but as soon as she took a step forward, the girls flinched, and Hyunjin snarled at her.

“Don’t talk to her!”

Haseul recoiled as if she had been hit. They all looked stunned by Hyunjin’s reaction, and Olivia knew she was no exception: Hyunjin was known to be fierce and protective, but that reaction was new, and the fear and hate in her eyes wasn’t something that could be faked. Something had gone terribly wrong.

“Hyunjin, I know you’re scared, but we’re not going to hurt you” Vivi advanced towards them, her hands raised and turned with her palms out, as she slowly tried to approach them, without upsetting them.

“Vivi…?”

Vivi’s eyes locked with Heejin’s, who looked confused, but less scared then she was mere moments before. She blinked sheepishly, and shook her head, like she was trying to get rid of the last remnants of sleep. Vivi latched onto that and quickly spoke, trying to retain Heejin’s attention.

“Heejin, baby, come here”. 

She held out her hand, and waited patiently as Heejin slowly disentangled herself from Hyunjin, avoiding her hands when the latter tried to grab her, even if her own panic was receding as well, leaving only confusion in its wake. Vivi wrapped her arms around the younger’s body, caressing her hair.

“Do you know where you are? Who we are?”

“Yes… Of course…” came the response, muffled from where she was speaking, against Vivi’s shoulder. “We’re at the castle. And you’re Vivi, and there’s also Haseul, and Olivia, and Jinsoul, Yerim and Jungeun”.

“Olivia? What’s going on?” Hyunjin rubbed her neck, a puzzled look in her face.

Without a word, Haseul took her arm and carefully lead her to a chair. Vivi did the same, then crouched in front of both them. Taking one of each girl’s hands in her own, she squeezed them as she spoke.

“Do you remember anything that’s happened these few days?”

Heejin scrunched her face.

“On Sunday we went through the portals with Yerim, Jinsoul and Jungeun, and when we got to the other side, we went to take a walk. We didn’t realise how late it was and how far away we were until nightfall. We run out of battery and didn’t know how to get back, so we thought we could try and sleep in a hotel and come back the next day. I don’t remember anything after that” she groaned. Hyunjin lowered her head, mumbling the she didn’t remember either.

“Do you have any idea of what might have happened?”

At Haseul’s question, the three scientists shared a look, but they all came blank.

“Do you think it’s possible they spent too much time out of our universe?” Olivia tentatively suggested. Her face heat up when the eyes of seven people landed on her, but encouraged by the interest in those looks, she carried on. “It might be stupid, but this is our universe. Maybe we don’t belong there? And we can only stay for short periods of time. Maybe the universe doesn’t ‘want’ us, so it tried to fight us the only way it can”.

“By erasing ourselves?” Haseul didn’t seem convinced.

“It’s not too crazy” Jinsoul responded. She was staring hard at Olivia, but her eyes had that quality they had when she was thinking, not really seeing what was in front of her. “It’s like we’re a virus, and the universe a body. It’s something foreign that doesn’t belong, so it tries to fight us. In this case, the universe doesn’t kill our body, but it does ‘kill’ us, in a sense: stripped of everything that makes us ourselves, we’re like blank slates, and the universe absorbs us, and makes us fit into itself”.

Olivia hadn’t really thought her idea was going to correct, but judging by the girls expressions, it seemed like they really did believe in what she had said, which made her feel incredibly proud.

“So what do we do now? How can we spend more time out without losing ourselves?”

That brought the three of them down from the haze in which they were. Jinsoul looked at Heejin.

“I don’t know”.

 

***

 

The news dampened everyone’s spirits. The idea of losing themselves was something that had terrified them, even if they didn’t say it out loud, and despite Jungeun, Jinsoul and Yerim’s efforts to convince them that everything would be okay as long as they returned in time, none used the portals for some time. The trio still hadn’t figured out a way to make sure they could spend more time out without forgetting who they were, so they were all reluctant to use it.

The first ones that got back to using the portals were, in fact, Heejin and Hyunjin, once they had recovered from the shock of completely forgetting who they were in the span of days. Even so, it wasn’t enough to keep them from crossing to another universe, and so they asked Jinsoul to open a door for them, and when they came back, tired but giggling, Olivia knew it was just a matter of time before the rest of them followed their steps.

Most of them wanted to go, after all. It wasn’t that they _didn’t_ want to, but rather the fear of the others that kept them in the castle. Yeojin was desperate to go, eager to see the wonders the other five girls talked about incessantly: it had been long since the pictures and stories had last been enough to soothe her, and she then begged to go. If she hadn’t done it yet was because Haseul was terrified, and she wouldn’t allow her to go. No matter how much Yeojin cried and pleaded, Haseul turned her down every time, even refusing to allow her to go out with the others. She refused to endanger the girl in the slightest. Vivi had stayed with them out of solidarity.

Out of the ones that had stayed behind, Yves was the one that was most eager to leave. It could be seen in the way she spoke, never fully in the conversation, like her mind was somewhere else, and in the way and moved, her eyes always fixed on the portal when they were near, her steps slowing when they passed by the spot in which it stood when open. She only stayed because Chuu made her stay, but Yves was nothing if not stubborn, and patient. She’d manage to convince Chuu to come with her, and it’d be sooner rather than later.

It was subtle, at first, so subtle Olivia almost didn’t notice. But like the sea against the shore, you don’t have to see it to know that with every wave, a bit of it goes away. Like the sea eroding a cliff, Yves made Chuu’s resolve crumble into dust, until there was nothing left of it, until, one day, Chuu agreed to go through the portal.

It was mayhem after that. The day Chuu and Yves first went through the portal, hands linked and eyes bright, Yeojin almost threw a tantrum, mad at the fact that she wasn’t allowed to go. And when they came back, giddy with all the wonders they had seen, with the experience of entering a brand new world, Yeojin’s face twitched, under the concerned eyes of Vivi and Haseul. As soon as Yves and Chuu started to talk about the universe they had gone to, one to which the access had been obtained so recently not even the magic trio had properly visited, Yeojin stood up and left, followed promptly by Haseul and Vivi, leaving behind a room full of listeners and a starry-eyed Gowon, who seemed to have found paradise in that universe.

 

***

 

The day Yeojin managed to convince Haseul to allow her to use the portals, everyone knew: Haseul looked considerably more stressed than the previous days and in contrast, Yeojin’s smile was the brightest it had been in months.

Olivia was there when they went through the portals, Yeojin, Haseul and Vivi. The latter’s pink hair was like a beacon as they all advanced towards the door, gleaming in the soft light that came from it. It lasted for about a second, before they were gone and the door closed behind them, leaving the room in darkness, and Go Won and Olivia surrounded by shadows. 

She knew it was just a matter of time before she’d be alone: she had seen how Yves talked to Go Won, with that light in her eyes that could only mean one thing, and the look of utter fascination on Go Won’s face as she talked to her and Chuu. She had seen Go Won’s fear disappear, replaced by curiosity, timidly but steadily growing. And she had seen their secret meetings and how they’d break apart when they saw her coming, changing topics so that she wouldn’t hear them. Not that she needed to, to know what was going on.

She knew it was coming, but knowing things in advance don’t necessarily make them easier to digest. Not as she stood in the balcony, looking down at the patch of garden where the portal had been set up, alone. Not as, one by one, all of her friends went through it, without as much as looking back at her, like she wasn’t even there. Go Won was the only one that faltered, locking eyes with her for a moment. 

Olivia turned around. 

She didn’t need to see the last of her friends abandoning her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is all for today. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'm sorry for the ending. I love our little baby wolf but it had to be this way. See you next week!!
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost at the end! One more week and Enemy lines will be over, so I hope you've enjoyed it if only a bit ^^  
> A bit of a warning for the chapter below: Olivia is going to make some questionable decisions as she's not in her best moment. This has turned more angsty than I expected, to be honest. And I'm really sorry it's our baby wolf the one that's suffering but it had to be done :(

When Olivia was young, she’d always been terrified of being alone. She dreaded growing up because she thought it would mean she’d be on her own, with no one by her side, no one caring about her, worrying about her. It had taken many late night conversations with Haseul for her to believe that would never happen, that her friends, her sisters, would always be there for her. They were her rock, the constant in her life. But they were gone.

They left at the crack of dawn, and came back when Olivia was already asleep. She didn’t see them. At first they left notes for her, little messages encouraging her to accompany them, but even those stopped at some point. Olivia guessed she had stopped being important. She wasn’t even worth a few words scribbled on a piece of paper.

The first few weeks, Olivia had resorted to dancing to keep her mind off those thoughts. She had used the computer, even read the notes and projects Jinsoul kept stacked in the back of the lab, hoping that the novelty would wear off, that one day they’d return, and things would be back to the way they were. But that didn’t happen.

Sometimes Olivia feared they had forgotten _who_ she was. It was like they thought she hadn’t grown up yet while they ignored the fact that she was the second youngest of them all. Haseul babied Yeojin, always there to protect her, sticking with her every step of the way. Yerim had Jungeun and Jinsoul, to whom she could always turn. They all had someone that cheered them up, pushed them when needed. But they all seemed to have forgotten that she, too, needed help, needed someone to guide her along the way. One look at her face, and they forgot she was still young, still naïve, and that the fear she felt wasn’t unjustified, that she couldn’t do everything _alone_. And they were gone, leaving her in a castle that was too big for her, with only her fears and demons to keep her company. 

And she was tired of being left behind.

Maybe, if she had someone she could talk to, she wouldn’t have resorted to it, but it had been a long time since she had spoken to any of her friends, the few times she had managed to even _see_ one of them, they had been too worn out to talk to her. They promised they would speak in the morning. They always did. But when the morning came, Olivia once again woke up to an empty castle, with no signs of the girls whatsoever. She only knew they kept coming back because the trio of scientists hadn’t been able to come up with a solution that would allow them more freedom, their movements not restricted to having to come back to their own universe, and so they still had to come back if they wanted to remember who they were when they woke up.

She thought long about it, but fear was never a good counselor. Not that that had occurred to her. The only thing she wanted was to not be alone. If she had enough time, maybe she’d be able to convince them to stay, or she’d finally have the courage to go with them. But she needed time. And she’d get it.

It was late at night when they came back. Olivia heard their muffled steps and low voices approaching her room. Rushing, she turned off the lights and got into bed, just in time for the door to open, the outline of the furniture lit up by the phone’s flashlight. Go Won came in, moving carefully, trying to make as little noise as possible to not wake the other girl up. Olivia stayed in the dark, her eyes opening when she felt the flashlight being turned off, her ears straining to hear any noises coming from Go Won. When she was sure the other girl had fallen asleep, her even breathing and soft snores the only thing to be heard in the room, she got up, and slipped out of the room, carefully closing the door behind her.

Once she left behind the corridor where all their bedrooms were located, she ran down the stairs, heading straight for the lab. They had moved the equipment, and the portals, back there when the weather had turned cold, and the rain threatened to damage it. She didn’t have much time, but she hoped it’d be enough to carry out her plan.

Leaving the door ajar, she turned on a couple lights, enough for her to see, but not so much so as to attract any attention in case someone came by, which she highly doubted. Turning on the machine, she dived in the code, and started tampering with it. 

It was a slow process: she had to make sure the machine stopped working after she was done with it, but it had to look like an accident. The last thing she wanted was to get caught. She had read enough of Jinsoul and Yerim’s notes to know what to do, but it still was a complex process,and she was too on edge to do it comfortably, half her mind with the code, the other trying to hear anything coming from the hallways.

She couldn’t have been there for more than an hour when she felt steps approaching. Freezing, she stopped what she was doing, not even breathing, as the faint steps came closer, and she started to make out voices.

“I can’t believe you lost your phone” Jinsoul groaned. “It better be here, Jungeun”.

Snapping out of her stillness, Olivia rushed to turn off the computer.

“I think it is. If not, I’ll ask Olivia to see if she can find it”.

The voices were getting closer. Moving as fast as she could, she ran to the door, turning the lights off as she went.

“That’s if you haven’t run out of battery” Olivia struggled to close the door quietly as Jungeun and Jinsoul drew nearer to the lab. “Speaking of Olivia, we haven’t seen her in a long time”, giving up, she rushed to get away from them, delving deeper in the shadows of the side of the corridor that was opposite to the stairs. “Maybe we should stay some days with her next week, we could try and convince her of coming with us”.

Olivia held her breath, and prayed that she wouldn’t get caught.

“We could try, but I don’t think we’d be successful”.

They were in front of the lab’s door, Jungeun speaking as she opened it. The sound of their voices disappeared when they shut it behind them. Just then Olivia allowed herself to breath again, hoping they would get out of the lab soon. She still hadn’t finished what she was doing, and she needed to. But as the clock ticked, the door remained closed, and Olivia found herself in a predicament: if she stayed there, she’d be able to see when they left, but if she was caught, there was no way she’d get away with it. On the other hand, if she went back to her room, she wouldn’t be caught, but it’d be harder for her to see when they came back. Not impossible, but harder. She hesitated, not knowing which would be the best option, but seeing it had been over half an hour and it didn’t look like they were going to come out anytime soon, she decided to head back to her room and wait there. With her luck, it was possible they’d found out about the code, and if she was found standing in the corridor, she’d be in trouble.

She went back to her room, unnoticed, and closed the door with a slight click. Go Won’s form stirred and she spoke, her voice heavy with sleep.

“Olivia…? What are you doing?”

“I just went to the bathroom. Don’t worry, Go won. Go back to sleep” she whispered.

To maintain the ruse, she slipped under the covers, fully dressed and determined to remain awake until she heard the telltale sound of steps in the corridor and she could go back to the lab and finish what she had started. But it was late, and she was tired, her bed too comfy and warm, and soon sleep claimed her.

 

***

 

‘ _The portal!!_ ’ was the first thing she thought about when she woke up with a jolt. Panicked, she barely registered the empty bed beside her, before she ran through the corridor, and down the stairs, taking the steps two at a time, so fast she almost slipped and snapped her neck. But it didn’t matter how fast she ran, how hard she pressed herself, because in the end, she was late.

By the time she arrived at the lab, there were two doors already open. Her heart sunk. They had already crossed to another universes. And she had fucked up. She hadn’t spent much time observing the doors, but she was pretty certain they weren’t meant to be flickering like they were. She hadn’t gotten around at finishing what she had started: what if she had broken the machine? What if the doors closed and they couldn’t come back? They wouldn’t retain their memories long enough for Jungeun, Jinsoul and Yerim to recreate the machine, and Olivia wasn’t knowledgeable enough about it to do it herself. The beating of her heart against her ribs was deafening.

It wasn’t too late yet, was it? She could see Yves’ form on the other side of the portal on the right, and she knew she and Haseul went to different universes. Preferences, they had said. She knew they had programed the doors to close with a little delay, in case they had landed somewhere they hadn’t intended to go to, so she hoped it would be enough for them go get back. Without thinking, she unlocked her phone, and when Vivi’s chat came up, she texted her.

_VIVI COME BACK_

_NOW_

_ALL OF YOU PLEASE_

Pocketing her phone, she ran through the portal. The sensation was overwhelming. She had to close her eyes to the too-bright light that encompassed her. Stepping through the portal made her dizzy, and she had been light-headed from the run, which combined with her speed when going through it made her fall down when she got to the other side.

“Olivia!”

There were hands on her arms, voices calling her name, but she was too dizzy at first to tell them apart. Still, she was a woman on a mission, and she willed herself to stand up on her too-weak legs, gripping the hands that were on her. 

When her vision cleared and she was able to think once again, she counted the faces around her: Chuu was the closest to her, the one to whom she was clinging to for support. There was also Yves, Go Won, Yerim and Jinsoul. They had all rushed to help her, and Olivia felt the imminent heartbreak.

“You came!”

“Olivia, you should have told us! We would have waited for you!”

There was so much happiness in their voices. It made Olivia’s eyes tear up. Yves, however, watched her closely. She had always done it. Nothing ever seemed to scape her penetrant gaze, and she seemed to sense something was amiss.

“Olivia, what’s wrong?” Her careful tone made the rest of them glance at Olivia, shooting confused looks between the both of them when they noticed Olivia’s expression.

“We have to go back, now” she chocked out. “The doors are unstable, they might close any minute now”.

At that, all but Yves turned around to look at the doors. Olivia didn’t have to see their faces to know they all had the same horrified expressions. Instead, she kept looking ahead, trying to keep the tears back. Yves’ stare never left her face.

“How…?” Yves’ eyes widened. She never finished the question, but she didn’t have to. “What have you done?” it was barely a whisper, but Olivia flinched like she had been punched, the tears falling from her eyes. It was Yves’ recoil and the way she looked at her, like she didn’t know any longer who she was, that managed to break Olivia’s heart.

“We have to go, now” Jinsoul ordered, voice hard. Her hands were shaking. “Olivia, did you warn the others?” she managed to weakly nod in response as they strode towards the door, whose flickering was becoming more intense. “I hope they can make it” she muttered.

But as soon as they reached the door, it disappeared in front of their eyes, leaving a solid wall in its place. Time seemed to freeze then. For a moment, they didn’t move, holding their breaths as they waited for something, anything, one last miracle that would save them. It never came. They stood there watching the wall as time resumed itself and the realisation that they would never come back home seeped through them.

Yves turned to Olivia, furious.

“What were you thinking!?” She screamed, stalking her. Olivia took a step back, then another. “How could you do it!?” Her back hit something, and she couldn’t get away from Yves any longer. “You just killed us all” she whispered.

Olivia broke down and wept, the tears streaming down her face as she fell into a crouch, the sobs shaking her body so hard it was almost painful. She could only see Yves’ shoes in front of her, until she moved away from her. Olivia could almost see the disappointment and disgust, the rage that contorted her features, feel the anger that rolled off her like waves. 

Blinking repeatedly to get rid of the tears, her eyes fell on her watch. Her breath hitched. She fumbled to get her off her wrist, her hands shaking so much she almost dropped it, making her want to rip her hair in frustration. But she managed to do it, and with trembling fingers, she pressed the button that would make her go back in time, and prayed that it would work.

The ground beneath her feet disappeared, and she could feel her body being pull in every direction, so hard and violently she almost passed out. But she didn’t have enough time. _They_ didn’t have enough time. Ten minutes was a very small window of time. She couldn’t waste it.Not when she only had one shot, the watch needing to recharge before it could be used again. So she gritted her teeth and willed herself to remain conscious. 

When she felt she was on stable ground once again, she opened her eyes. She was in the middle of the lab, crouched halfway between the doors and the table. The portals were still open, flickering in and out of existence. 

Exhaling in relief, she pounced on the computer and she proceeded to undo the harm she had done to the code. Maybe, if she was fast enough, she could stabilise them. Maybe she could make sure the other eleven girls came back. She could do it. She had to.

Working faster than ever before, she rushed over lines and lines of coding, expertly erasing what she had added, adding what she had erased. She allowed herself to have a little hope, just a tiny flame flickering in the back of her mind to keep her going. But it seemed the universe didn’t want her to succeed. Maybe it was just as fed up as Olivia was of being left behind, of the girls using it like it was only a rest stop, because as Olivia’s hands flew over the keyboard to give the code it’s final touch, the one that would stop the doors from collapsing, there was a flash of pink on the other side of the portals.

Olivia lifted her head, in time to see Vivi approaching the portal. Olivia opened her mouth to stop her, wanting to scream, to shout, but nothing came out of her. Her lips were just starting to move when Vivi stepped through her side of the portal. And they were still moving when, under her horrified eyes, the portal closed, with Vivi still in the middle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for today's week! I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and hopefully I'll see you next Friday with the finale ^^ Have a nice weekend!
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)  
> \- Val


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is, the final chapter of Enemy lines are drawn, and the finale for the Time is frozen series! And just in time for Heejin's and Chuu's birthdays ;) (The timing wouldn't have been better even if I had planned it xD)  
> I apologise for the angst I've put out girls through, but maybe I'll be able to redeem myself? Or maybe I won't? Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you that have reached this point, and I hope you enjoy the ending!!!

Olivia didn’t think there had been a time when she had felt as sick as when she saw the doors closing around Vivi, taking her with them. She stood there, rooted to the floor, eyes glued to where Vivi had last stood, as the computer and wiring around her sizzled and crackled, sparks falling from everywhere, threatening to light everything up in fire. She didn’t even notice the dark smoke that rose from the machine, it’s pungent smell making her stomach churn. Or maybe that was the guilt. Guilt at the fact that she had managed to keep her friends from coming back home. When the day had ended, they would forget themselves. Yves was right. She had killed them.

She didn’t come back to her senses until much later, when a piercing noise broke through the too-quiet castle, ugly and deafening, and it took her a while to figure out she was it’s source. She was beyond despair, too far gone for tears to come, or maybe she had just ran out of them before, and the only thing that came out of her broken sobs that destroyed her from the inside out. She rocked herself, knees clutched tightly against her chest, her knuckles so white it seemed her skin was going to split. Not that she cared. The only thing she cared about were her friends. Her friends who would hate her, so much. It would be short-lived, though. Olivia had made sure they’d forget after a day. 

Sometime later, she was able to stand on her wobbling legs, somehow managing to stop sobbing, and she took in her surroundings: fortunately, nothing was ablaze. Unfortunately, the machine was very much broken, the screen having turned black a while ago, still hot to the touch. She ran her hands through her hair, as she tried to will her heart to stillness. As her heart rate went down and the guilt eased a little, just enough for her to think, she tried to come up with something. She couldn’t just leave her friends out there, stripped of the very things that made them, _them_.

She had stacks of notes about the portals, all the time in the world, and the will needed to bring them back. And she would.

 

***

 

It was proved to be more challenging than Olivia had thought at first. She knew it was going to be hard. She just hadn’t known how much. Even with the notes the others girls had taken, it almost wasn’t enough. It took her two months until she was able to repair the machine. And still, it wasn’t perfect. It lagged, its engine running so slowly it sometimes stopped, and groaned like it was too battered to carry on working. But it had to make do. There was no way she’d be able to make one from scratch.

That made her so frustrated. She used to consider herself intelligent, but after all the had gone down, she’d started to think differently. It wasn’t that she was dumb; she knew Jinsoul, Jungeun and Yerim were on a whole new level, and they all fueled each other, making their ideas complete. Olivia was good enough to understand their notes, to repair the machine up to some degree, but she was dumb when it came to the important things. She was dumb and blind when she decided tampering with the coding would be a good idea, when she thought forcefully keeping her friends by her side was going to stop her life from crumbling, but in the end, it was her the one who had destroyed twelve lives. The castle, silent and sad and fatally wounded, was a constant reminder of her failure, and it pushed her to be better, to fix what she had teared apart.

The first time she went through the portal, praying that it would work, it closed just behind her. Thankfully, she had been more prepared that time, and when she hadn’t been working on repairing the machines, she had been carefully upgrading her watch, making sure she’d have a bigger window in case things went south. The moment she realised she had succeeded, when she was able to rewind up to a full week, she felt a sense of pride inside her, and turned around to tell Jungeun about it, before she remembered Jungeun wasn’t there, and the happiness died before it could even bloom. Ignoring the lump in her throat, she had carried on, and she was glad she had, as it seemed the only way she was returning to the castle was by going back on time.

But first, she had a mission to accomplish. Digging her phone out of her pocket, she looked for the small dots on her screen that would signal were the other girls were, hoping that they were still there, that they hand’t left the city, or worse. She smiled as she saw the tiny animals on themap. Her smile soon fell when she only counted five, instead of the six she had been expecting, but it was still a big portion of the girls. And it didn’t have to mean anything bad. It looked like most of them were at the same place, so she headed there.

It wasn’t until she got there were she noticed where the map had taken her to. She had been so focused on her screen she hadn’t been aware of the pang of disinfectant in the air or how the temperature seemed to be several degrees lower than on the streets. It was the squeaking of her sneakers on the floor that made her look up, and her breath hitched, as she slowed to a stop. She was in a hospital, if she remembered Yerim’s words correctly, a place were they took the people that were sick.

It was like the floor opened beneath her feet. She felt like falling, and was tempted to go back. If she could avoid it, maybe it wouldn’t be real, right? But she couldn’t do that. Her sisters were there because she had been a coward and an egoist: she owed them. Gulping, she followed the indications on her phone’s screen, and went to find her friends.

She found herself in front of a room, in the third floor of the hospital. The door was ajar, and she pushed it slowly until it was completely open, granting her view of the inside of it. There were two beds, but only one was occupied, and around it there were four girls: Haseul, Yeojin, Hyunjin and Jungeun. They were barely talking, and when they did, it was in hushed tones, as if they didn’t want to disturb whoever it was in the bed. There were too many bodies for Olivia to see who was the patient, but she didn’t need to see her to know it was Vivi.

“Can we help you?” Olivia blinked out of her stupor and jolted when she found four pairs of eyes staring at her.

She opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came. Without a second thought she ran away, her eyes burning with tears. It wasn’t finally seeing her friends what had broken her, not even Vivi in that bed, but the look of utter ignorance in Jungeun’s eyes as she spoke to her: there was nothing in her eyes, no recognition or pain or sadness, at least not regarding Olivia. She had been wiped out of their minds, like she had never existed. She was a stranger to all of them. Olivia thought she had feared the rage and hate in their eyes when they met again, but that blank look had felt like she had been stabbed in the heart. 

When she felt like she could stand on her own, she pushed herself off the wall and went back to the room. She couldn’t go without seeing Vivi one last time. She wanted to see Heejin as well, but she wasn’t there and Olivia had no way of knowing where she was, not right then, so she settled for seeing Vivi before leaving once again. Luckily for her, the room was empty by the time she reached it. 

Slowly, she crept towards the bed and what little was left of her heart wept once again: Vivi’s soft pink hair was sprawled on her pillow, the only touch of colour against the pristine white sheets. She looked devoid of all life, her skin as pale as it had even been, her cheeks hollowed out. Were she had previously exuded a quiet but strong and determined aura, she then appeared weak and tiny, like she could break anytime. Olivia willed herself to take in how she looked, sleeping in an empty room, the constant beeping of the monitors her only companion, and forced her eyes to go past her face, to the wires that disappeared under the blanket. Many if them were covered by it, but there was one that was under Vivi’s head, possibly on the nape of her neck, and they were all connected to the machines around her. 

Vivi had been fine before she had left the castle, so it didn’t take a genius to know what had happened to her. She was not dead, and for that Olivia could breath a little easier, but she looked like she had been sleeping for the whole time they had been there: the portal closing on her had taken a toll, but Olivia just thanked the universe for not taking her sister away.

A drop landed on the blanket, near Vivi’s arm, and Olivia distantly noticed there were tears running down her face. Sniffing, she used her sleeve to dry her cheeks, and then softly grabbed one of Vivi’s hands. It was cold, too cold for it to be natural, almost as if it was made of metal and not flesh and bone, but Olivia didn’t care, as long as she was able to hold Vivi’s hand. Leaning down, she pressed her lips to the other girl’s forehead, resting them there for a second, before pulling away.

“I’m really sorry for this, Vivi. I swear I’ll make it up to you” she whispered, her voice a pained sob.

Standing straight, she reached for her watch and pressed down, ready to go back to the castle.

 

***

 

It was hard to stay at the castle. It had once been her home, but it felt empty and cold when she was it’s only inhabitant, the silence a constant reminder of what she had done. It was harder still to go through the doors and watch the other girls in the new lives the universe had crafted for them; they had been right, after all, and the universe had taken them in, creating a life and a story for the girls, erasing all their previous memories. It was like they had never been at the castle. Olivia was the only one that remembered those times.

Sometimes she wondered if she should be trying to bring them back, or was she being selfish? Was she trying to ease her guilt by bringing them back to the castle? Maybe it was best for them to remain where they were. Olivia would be alone, but she had brought that upon herself and she’d deal with that. It wasn’t like she’d be able to bring them all back: all she had was an absolute lack of plans, and a portal that closed behind her as soon as she went through it. She knew the watch was enough to bring her back home, but she also knew it wasn’t strong enough to bring someone else with her. She had been testing it’s limits, and if was the one wearing the watch and she grabbed something, the watch would bring them all to where she had been. It didn’t work if they were in a different universe, though, and she had no way to lure the girls into the castle, so perhaps it would be best to allow them to have a life in those universes they had come to love so much. Maybe it’d be for the best. 

But whenever she started to entertain the idea, she’d remember Vivi’s face, how small and fragile she seemed, and she’d thought of Jungeun, who sometimes turned around to talk to someone that was never there. Olivia had spent time making sure they were fine, and while most of the girls, sans Vivi, appeared to be doing okay, Jungeun looked like she was lacking something, and her mind, her beautiful mind that was always buzzing with ideas, had gone quiet. Olivia couldn’t stand it. She had to do something. And there was only one thing she could do.

The portal that would lead her to Jinsoul and Yerim had remained closed for the most part. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see them, it was just that she didn’t think she’d be able to face Yves, which was stupid because Yves wouldn’t even remember her. Despite that, Olivia couldn’t get rid of the guilt and the shame and the fear of how Yves would react. Olivia almost thought Yves’ anger would be enough to break through her amnesia, and she’d be back to hating Olivia. It was too much for her to take, but she also knew she’d have to face her friends sometime, and they’d all learn the truth. Although, if she wanted to reunite with her friends, she’d have to do something.

“You can’t do this alone. You need Jinsoul and Yerim and you know it, so stop being a coward” she muttered to herself. Her voice bounced back from the walls. It made the ghosts a little bearable, made her feel a little less alone.

She got up from the cot she had made herself in the lab, and walked to the computer. The portal that would lead to the rest of her friends had only been opened once before, and she’d barely been there enough to see that Jinsoul and Yerim were faring well, before she had run back to the castle. From what she’d seen, they were both scientists there, their field work pretty similar to what they had been doing back at home. She didn’t really want to go back, but she had to, and she forced herself to, making a habit of spending time there, even if she wasn’t able to go look for Yves, Chuu and Go Won. 

Instead, sometimes she stayed at the lab next to Jinsoul and Yerim’s, with a guy named Hyungwon who worked on time traveling. She almost wanted to tell him the problems that may come from it, but refrained from it. Somehow, everyone assumed Olivia just worked there and no one seemed weirded out by her presence there. She guessed it was because she had spent so much time in that universe, she too had a place there. Maybe, if she ended up giving up, she’d be able to stay, and be friends with Jinsoul and Yerim once again. But for the time being, she clung onto who she was, and avoided them, hiding herself from sight when they came by, deepening her voice, giving them a false name when anyone asked. She wasn’t ready for that just yet.

Still, being able to know they were fine, alleviated her pain, even if she couldn’t bring herself to see them. Olivia could only wonder why they had stayed pretty much the same, when Jungeun hadn’t, but it was a good opportunity for her: it would make everything a bit easier. She just needed a plan to bring them all back.

There were several problems that needed to be overcome before she could do that: although the door that lead to Jinsoul’s universe seemed to be in better conditions than the other one (probably Vivi triggering it’s closing had damaged further the universe), it was still unstable, meaning that some times it closed back after she went through it. Olivia learnt that the hard way, of course, when she once crossed onto the other universe and found the door closed by the time she came back. She had to use the watch to go back. It wasn’t yet a problem, but if it were to happen when she had prepared something in the foreign universe, it would mean that going back would undo it, so she’d have to find another way.

“If I can make Jinsoul and Yerim open a door to another universe, like this one, maybe it would be enough for them to pass through…”.

That was another thing to take into account. She couldn’t just appear out of thin air and force them to come with her. She had already tried it. It had been too disastrous to even remember it. She had to make them come willingly. But first things first, she had to make sure the door could be open.

She debated on whether it’d be best to open a door to their Eden, or to the other universe. Ultimately, she decided it’d be best if they opened it to the latter. If they saw each other, maybe that’d trigger some memories. Happy memories. She wasn’t sure if the forest that surrounded the castle would be considered among those.

Opening the door was relatively easy. She had been around long enough to know that both girls were stuck, and were unable to do anything. They’d be desperate, and she knew how a desperate Jinsoul would act. So, in the dead of the night, she opened a portal to their lab, carrying with her a stack of papers. They were old and a bit frayed around the edges, due to all the tampering Olivia had done with them. She set them with some other papers at one of the desks, the one she hoped was Yerim’s, but it was too dark for her to see anything. Either way, she was pretty sure they’d use them.

It was a relief when, the next day, they opened a door. Olivia was so happy she was close to tears, and Hyungwon shot her a weird look when we walked by her, but Olivia couldn’t care less. She was about to bring her friends home, and that was enough for her. She didn’t know how, but she had all the time in the world to figure it out.

Except she didn’t.

When the ground beneath her feet started to shake, she realised she had made a mistake. With the last remnants of sleep still clinging onto her, she tried to make sense of what she was seeing on the computer’s screen. There were too many numbers, too much data for her to properly understand it, but she managed to figure out she had messes up. Again. Without even looking, she reached for her watch, and pressed. Time rewound, once more. 

“I can’t do this on my own” she cried, once she was sure the universes were safe.

She had always know she’d have to undo the damage she had caused on her own, but it wasn’t until that moment that it really dawned on how incredibly alone she truly was. Somehow, she had hoped that, if she nudged Jinsoul and Yerim on the right direction, they’d be able to do it by themselves. She hadn’t counted on the gap that was between the two of them, the one that used to be, that should have been filled by a blonde girl. It had always been them three, the Odd Eye Circle, but Jungeun wasn’t there anymore. Jinsoul and Yerim still fit together, but they were a puzzle yet to be completed, and it had become painfully obvious just then. It had been Jungeun the one that had realised what happened to the universes. It was only fitting that, with her gone, the other two hadn’t been able to see that. 

That was yet another problem, as it put a limit to the time Olivia had to bring her girls back. She needed a definite plan, and she needed it right then.

And just like that, she found herself stuck. Every time she tried something new, she seemed to get one step closer, but it still wasn’t enough. Whenever she managed to overcome an obstacle, another one would rise, and she’d have to turn back time. Frustration was eating her from the inside out, and as ridiculous as it might sound, she thought Yerim and Jinsoul felt that as well. They had all been living in the same week for over six months, but Olivia was the only one that remembered it. 

Jinsoul looked particularly down, so one day, Olivia went to the garden and picked the prettiest roses she could find. After going back yet another time, she grabbed the bouquet and set it down gently, with a handwritten note among the roses. 

_I know it seems like this week never ends, that it constantly repeats itself and that you’re walking in circles, but know that what you do is important. You are important. I’ll always be here for you. Till the last moment, I’ll stay right by your side. We can’t be separated xO_

She wrote it half for Jinsoul’s comfort, and half for hers. She shouldn’t even have bothered with signing it, but it was an impulse she couldn’t resist. It made her feel real, like she was there with them. Like she was still a part of their lives, no matter how small. Maybe they’d think nothing of it, but it brought solace to her soul. And even if she regretted leaving them there, she was too slow the next time she had to go back in time, and so there was no time for her to pick them again. They became a fixed element of their timeline. At least a tiny part of Olivia would be with them. That was a relief.

Still, no matter what she did, her plans would inevitably crash and burn down. Her latest plan involved Jungeun, because how hadn’t it occurred to her to use the strong connection betweenJinsoul and Jungeun to her advantage. It hadn’t worked any better than the hundred previous ones she had tried, at first, until she thought of using someone else. She knew her friends better than she knew herself, and she was absolutely sure Jinsoul wouldn’t go into an unknown forest willingly. The only way she’d do it was if she entered it after someone else. Yerim would never do it, she was far too cautious for it, but Jungeun… Jungeun would do it, for almost everyone. And she’d do it for Yeojin, the most adventurous and curious of them all.

Hacking into Jungeun’s phone and sending Yeojin a message as if she were the blonde was easy enough. The hardest part would be to be able to lure the girl into the castle in time to rewind time with her by Olivia’s side. Too many times she’d had to watch the three of them disappear in the heart of the forest, but if anything, Olivia had learnt how to be patient. 

She knew she’d one day hear steps, and another voice would break the thick blanket of silence that had settled over the castle and it’d say…

“Hello?”

Olivia stayed still for a heartbeat. 

Then, she smiled.

It’d all be okay. 

They’d all be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. I really hope you've enjoyed it. I know I myself have enjoyed writing this a lot, and I probably wouldn't have been able to finish it had it not been for you guys reading it! These have been my first chaptered fics in English and I was unsure about publishing them because English is not my native language but I'm glad for those of you who have given it a shot, and who seem to have enjoyed it!  
> I hope this has been a good finale, and I hope I have answered all the questions that lingered from LIDN, but if you have anything you want to say to me, please do!  
> Once again, thank you for the support and the comments (both here and on my cc), you guys make me so happy, I just hope I've managed to entertain you with my storied and made you enjoy them.  
> I'll hopefully be back soon with something else! See you next time <3
> 
> [tw](https://twitter.com/monstaruniverse) || [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Val_99)
> 
> \- Val


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